Cyber Monday sales top $3 billion, beat forecast

Robust online sales late in the day helped push Cyber Monday revenues to more than $3 billion for the first time, setting a record for a single day of online sales that also topped expectations.

According to the Adobe's Digital Index, total online sales on Cyber Monday rose 16 percent from last year, to $3.07 billion.

The software company had predicted the sales event, which is traditionally the largest online selling day of the year, would rise just 12 percent, to right around $3 billion.

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Sales for the five-day period starting on Thanksgiving totaled $11.11 billion, 2.4 percent more than the expected $10.85 billion and 17 percent more than last year, Adobe said.

Mobile sales also reached a sales volume record, with $799 million of online spending coming from a smartphone or tablet, Adobe said.

The results serve as further evidence that shoppers are increasingly favoring their digital devices over physical stores, even as the majority of purchases continue to take place in bricks-and-mortar locations.

Overall, data from the five-day Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping has been uninspiring, as early price cuts and deflation weighed on results.

But not all shopping centers are seeing declines. According to a spokeswoman from Taubman Centers, the majority of its malls over Black Friday weekend reported sales were up slightly or the same as last year.

And a spokesman for real estate firm DDR said traffic at its mainland centers was even or slightly up slightly from last year.

Online revenues, while rising at a slower rate than in years' past, are nonetheless driving the majority of retailers' growth, with Amazon leading the charge.